A bullpen, like an umpiring crew, often goes unnoticed unless it makes mistakes.
The Seattle Mariners would like to challenge that approach. Seattle has enjoyed one of the best bullpens in baseball as of late, and it hopes the trend will continue as it faces the Minnesota Twins to kick off a three-game series Monday in Minneapolis.
The Mariners are coming off a 3-2 road win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep. Seattle’s bullpen combined to pitch three scoreless innings, and Jose A. Ferrer closed the door in the ninth inning for his first save.
Seattle manager Dan Wilson said he was fortunate to have a top bullpen.
“We’ve got guys we trust in those spots,” Wilson said. “And they just continue to do the job.”
The Mariners have won four games in a row and six of their past eight.
Minnesota is careening in the opposite direction and hopes to stop its skid as it opens a seven-game homestand. The Twins are coming off a 4-2 road loss against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday that marked the team’s fifth loss in a row and its ninth loss in the past 10 games.
Twins manager Derek Shelton wants his young team to focus on its next game instead of worrying about the past 10 contests.
“We’re going through a tough funk,” Shelton said. “We have to stay on the course. We have to stay positive. It seemed like early in the season, we were capitalizing on everything. Right now, we’re not capitalizing. We need to flip the switch.”
Mariners right-hander Luis Castillo (0-1, 5.01 ERA) will try to prevent that from happening. Castillo remains in search of his first victory heading into his sixth start of the season, but he has fanned 23 in 23 1/3 innings.
Castillo recorded a quality start in his season debut but has not pitched six innings in any of his past four outings. In his last start Tuesday against the Athletics, he allowed two runs on five hits in five innings.
This will be Castillo’s 10th career start against the Twins. In his first nine contests, he is 1-2 with a 4.82 ERA and 49 strikeouts in 46 2/3 innings.
Minnesota will counter with left-hander Connor Prielipp, who is set to make the second start of his career. He made his big-league debut on Wednesday and allowed two runs on four hits in four innings against the New York Mets. He struck out six and didn’t issue a walk.
Prielipp, 25, began his career on the road and will start in front of his hometown fans for the first time. He is from Tomah, Wis., which is about 175 miles from the Twin Cities.
The rookie hurler will try to silence Cal Raleigh, who belted his sixth home run on Sunday afternoon. Raleigh is hitting .204 with 15 RBIs on the season.
Raleigh, who finished as the runner-up in the American League MVP vote last season, deflected praise to his teammates in the bullpen.
“They’re a massive part of this team,” Raleigh said. “Without them, we wouldn’t be where we are.”
–Field Level Media
